Tied Hands

Seeing the bloodsucker get caught in the string, Fex readied himself. This was the final, and most crucial part of his plan. Too easily can he mess up now.

As he ran around the monster creating more string, he was able to tell just how much the bloodsucker was weakened. It was bloodied, and its movements were beginning to slow. He could only hope it was enough.

The bloodsucker managed to tear through the string, only to get caught in more of it. Fex was making more as he ran around, but he felt a small stinging pain in his fingers.

His fingers were slightly bloodied, a natural consequence of using his ability to this extent. There was a way to make his strings stronger, but he didn’t know how to do that just yet. That wasn’t to say his normal string were weak, as it had the strength of steel.

Then, for the next part, Fex slammed his body into one of the pillars, causing the roof of the parking garage to crumble a little. It wasn’t enough to fully collapse, but that was what the bloodsucker was for. Fex then started to run to the other pillars to try to weaken them.

She clawed at the string she was tied with, and broke free. Then she leapt towards Fex, and he was able to narrowly dodge at the last second. The bloodsucker’s head crashed into the pillar, causing it to topple.

Looking at the ceiling, the cracks in them had spread out further, releasing some small debris.

As they were breaking down the remaining pillars, there was only one left near the center. The pillars were dwindling, as well as the string. There wasn’t much left, but Fex had to run to the last pillar.

’And... I haven’t planned this far,’ Fex thought.

He needed the roof to collapse on the bloodsucker by having her break the last pillar, but he didn’t know how to get her to do that without the roof also collapsing on him.

Since he was already holding his flask, Fex splashed some blood on the pillar, and closed the bottle. He then jumped to the side, and watched as the bloodsucker leapt towards the blood, and started frantically licking it.

Fex quickly grabbed a handful of broken strings connected to the last pillar, and yanked on it as hard as he could.

The roof began to crack in the middle, small bits of debris falling on the bloodsucker at first, giving Fex the time to escape the pending collapse. Just as Fex got far enough away, the roof fell apart, burying Erin under a pile of rubble, fully entombing her.

[- 3 HP]

[HP 5/25]

He wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but his job wasn’t over yet. The stone wasn’t going to hold for long.

Soon enough, the rubble that previously buried the bloodsucker had shuffled, and Fex flinched a little. He held the flask tightly, and prepared himself. Every moment required intense concentration, and good timing.

A long boney arm popped out, and started dragging its body out of the debris. The moment that the head became visible, Fex rushed in and shoved the flask into her mouth.

Immediately, the bloodsucker started swallowing the blood inside, practically inhaling it. He would’ve thought that she was sloppily drinking it if it weren’t for the fact that not a single drop had escaped her mouth.

[Sufficient blood has been consumed]

[Transformation will now end]

[Your mind is starting to stabilize]

Then, her body grew limp, and the flask fell from her mouth. Fex was quick to catch it, and only began to drag her out of the rubble once she started to go back to normal.

Fex finally let out a massive sigh, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He knew that bloodsuckers were the result of intense starvation, and a massive threat if a vampire ever became one. He didn’t know if a bloodsucker would attack other vampires despite lacking human blood, and he got his answer today.

He got lucky, if you can call being thrown around like a rag doll, and getting chased around by a crazed vampire lucky. He really didn’t want to risk getting bitten like that again. This was why he needed to have Erin held long enough for him to feed her.

Once Erin’s body was free, Fex could see all the changes as she reverted back to normal. Her limbs shrank, no longer stretched out, flesh looking more alive. The previously tight skin had softened, her claws reverted back to a more human shape. Erin’s teeth were no longer too large to fit in her mouth, and as she awoke, the whites of her eyes finally returned.

Erin slowly sat upright, holding her head tightly. It was ringing, and she squinted her eyes to see a black haired teenage boy.

"What did I say about—!" Erin spat out before she fell over as images flashed in her mind. She started writhing on the ground. All the memories of being turned into a mindless monster, acting nothing more than just a violent animal, and attacking her would-be-savior flooded her brain.

Fex took a step back, a little scared of her. Instead, he quickly tapped on his earring, calling for a particular friend of his.

"Ham, hey, uh, can you come out real quick?" 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

His earring turned into smoke, and a small black bull with wings appeared from it.

"Boss? Is the coast clear—" Ham’s eyes widened as he saw what was happening, "Whoa, what’s happening with her?"

Erin was grabbing her head and gritting her teeth. Not only that, but her clothes were ruined. To say that she looked like she had fought a blender and survived was not an understatement.

"Don’t worry about her, but I need you to find a safe place for us to stay at," Fex replied as he held his hand out for Ham to stand on, "I think we both need a place to rest."

Ham took one last glance at the squirming Erin before flying off.

Fex was thinking that even though Erin was back to normal, the threat wasn’t clear just yet as a beast could sneak up on them at any moment. Fex could still fight, but he was very mentally tired from enduring the intense fights, and he didn’t know how capable Erin was going to be after everything today.

The pain started to die down, and Erin was heavily panting. Before she could even think about recovering, notification messages sounded off in her brain.

[Advanced tier deathbat has been defeated]

[First advanced tier beast killed]

[First time killing Deathbat]

[You have survived a Deathbat]

[Reward: 2 Instant level ups]

[Congratulations, you are now level 10]

[Evolution process has begun!]

"I’m evolving?!" Erin squeaked.

That had caught Fex’s attention as Erin started squirming around on the floor again.

Her heart felt like it was going to explode out of her chest. Veins bulged as blood rushed throughout her body. She was on her hands and knees, trying to keep herself upright as sweat dripped off of her. It felt like there were pins and needles under her skin, and again her vision was blurry as her brain couldn’t keep up with all the pain.

"I’m going to— I’m going to shove a needle right up his—!" Erin grunted out before screaming in agony.

Fex, however, knew what to do, and shoved the blood flask back into Erin’s mouth, silencing her.

"There, there," Fex coddled as if she were a baby, and lightly patted her back, "Just drink."

Erin wanted to punch him for his tone, but drinking blood actually helped. Her pain eased faster than before, and she wasn’t screaming anymore. Her shaking had lessened, and at last she could breathe easily.

Taking in a deep breath, she could see that the system screen had changed. She got a few new notifications, which was just adding to her already annoying headache.

[Congratulations! Evolution was successful, you are now a vampire!]

[Race: Vampire]

[Level 10]

[HP 60/60]

[Strength: 20]

[Agility: 20]

[Stamina: 20]

[Charm: 10]

[Blooded family: 0/2]

[MC 75/100]

While there were more system messages, Erin elected to ignore it. There was something slightly more pressing, and it was the fact that the annoying smelling boy had seen her writhe around like some sort of agitated baby. No wonder he treated her like one!

Erin shakily stood on two feet, and pointed her finger right into Fex’s chest.

"Don’t you DARE tell anyone about this," Erin spat out, still panting.

Instead, what had confused Erin was the fact that Fex knelt down to his knee, and had a fist on the floor.

"What are you doing?"

"Erin... I just want to say that I am ashamed I wasn’t able to beat the deathbat and had to drag you along into it. The truth is... I didn’t... I didn’t complete the test I was meant to do to create my ring. I paid someone else to do it, and yet you were able to beat something I should’ve been able to."

Erin looked down at him, and felt a little awkward doing so. She didn’t know what he meant by his test as it was clearly something normal humans didn’t usually do. Maybe it had something to do with vampire traditions? Either way, she could tell this was something important to him.

Erin knelt down a little, "...Look, get up. I don’t care about whatever test you’re talking about, but... I saved your life, and you saved mine. Just don’t tell anyone about how I looked earlier, and I won’t tell anyone you didn’t do your test."

Fex tilted his head up and looked at her confused. He expected a different reaction from practically admitting he cheated on an important test, but Erin didn’t know the true importance of it all.

It was then that Fex realized just how much Erin’s face had changed. He knew she was considered a pretty person before, but that was back when she didn’t compare to the vampire beauties he had seen back home. Now, despite being basically tossed into a blender, Erin’s face was quite gorgeous, even if it was covered in blood.

Her face was softer than before, barely any blemishes on her skin, and it had somewhat turned paler. Not only that, but her hair was smoother despite having so much debris on her, and he could see her arms through the ripped sleeves had grown more toned.

Fex got up and nodded, "You should know that a vampire’s honor is very important, so when I swear to stay silent, I mean it."

Ham flew back to where they were at, and flapped his wings near Fex.

"I found a pretty sturdy looking dome near here!"